Pseudo Mortem
by sailor's delight
Summary: My first fanfic..AU where The Marauders, Lily and Tonks are in their seventh year at Hogwarts James is Harry's older cousin, and new members to the Order of the Phoenix. On their first mission, something goes terribly wrong...RLNT, minor LEJP


-This is my first fanfic so be kind!

**A/N** this is AU where The Marauders (except Wormtail), Tonks and Lily are all in their seventh year. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in their third year.

Reviews are welcome and enjoy!

-sailor's delight

**Pseudo Mortem**

Remus Lupin was not one for parties. But his stubborn, party going girlfriend insisted.

"It's in Gryffindor common room so it'll be hard to avoid going Remus…" Tonks stated earlier that day while they were in his dorm. Tonks had just gotten back from Hogsmeade with Lily and stopped by Remus' room to hang out for a bit before dinner. The party in question was being thrown to celebrate the end of term and finals and the beginning of winter break.

"Besides, I got a new top today that I want to wear tonight, so I have to go. And I'm not going alone."

"You're not going to be alone! Lily and Sirius and James and the rest of Gryffindor Tower will be there!" Remus said impatiently.

"Fine! Stay up here all alone while I'm down there getting drunk, and doing god knows what with other guys…" Tonks said loudly.

Remus' head snapped up at the last part and he gave her a warning glare. "You wouldn't…" he started.

"Who knows? I'll be trashed!" she retorted. Tonks bit back a smile and the urge to giggle because she knew she had won. Bring up a drunken Tonks plus other guys this close to the full moon and you'll get one pissed off Remus.

"Fine. I'll go." He said quietly.

"Goody!" Tonks said cheerfully with a smile. She leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before getting up and gathering her coat and bags full of Hogsmeade purchases. "See you at dinner then." And with that she walked out the door and down the stairs to the girls' dormitories.

That was six hours ago. Now it was almost midnight and the party was far from over. Remus had to admit, after a shot of firewiskey and a rum and coke he was feeling a bit tipsy as he sipped his second butterbeer of the night. Tipsy was nothing compared to his girlfriend who was currently leaning on him with her face screwed up in concentration as she aimed the ping pong ball for Lily and James' red cups across the table. Finally she chucked the little ball and watched as it splashed into one of their cups of butterbeer. Tonks gave a cheer of delight, turned around and kissed Remus, who would have under normal conditions feel uncomfortable at her PDA, but under the influence of firewiskey kissed her back.

"Come on! Break it up; we got a game to finish!" James said unhappily, as he was currently losing this round of butterbeer pong. This was ironic, seeing that it was his idea of this little couple vs. couple game.

"Fine, fine, you just don't want to be losing anymore!" Tonks slurred. "Where's Sirius? He promised me next round!"

Remus kept his mouth shut as he had seen Sirius sneaking off with a Hufflepuff girl thirty minutes prior.

A couple of hours and many rounds of pong later, Remus was carrying a half-conscious Tonks up the stairs to his dorm. He couldn't take her to her own dorm because boys weren't allowed in the girls' dorms, only if they are magically "buzzed in" so to speak by the resident of the dorm they wish to visit. Seeing that Tonks was incapable of speech at the moment, and her only roommate, Lily, was god knows where with James, it looked like she would be spending the night in his dorm. Carrying her up the stairs proved to be a difficult task considering Remus was half drunk himself. Finally he got her into the dorm and carried her over to the bed where he laid her down. Remus then took a quick scan of the room, to find out that his roommates weren't there (surprise, surprise). He breathed a sigh of relief and crawled into bed next to Dora and was instantly asleep.

Two weeks later…

Sirius, James, Remus, Lily and Tonks were sitting in their usual compartment on the Hogwarts Express heading back to school after winter break. They arrived at the castle, put on their coats and headed into the Great Hall for the feast. As usual, Professor Dumbledore said a few quick words…welcome back, a new year, hope you all enjoyed the break, etc. After their stomachs were full and their eye lids were heavy, the group made their way slowly back up to Gryffindor Tower.

"I'm stuffed," said Lily sleepily as she flopped down next to James on the plush couch in the common room.

"Well maybe you shouldn't eat so much next time," said Sirius casually, earning a glare from Lily as he sat down on the other side of her and grabbed the remote, turning on the big-screen TV that was in the common room.

"Look who's talking! You had like five slices of pumpkin pie for dessert," said Tonks from where she was standing in the small kitchen leaning against the counter with a bottle of water.

"So?" replied Sirius. He then turned his attention back to the TV and searched for a channel.

Tonks rolled her eyes and then looked at Remus who shrugged as if to say "He's your cousin".

"Welcome back. I hope you all had an enjoyable break, but it's time to get back into the swing of things," Professor McGonagall said to the N.E.W.T Transfiguration class. "Today we will be starting non-verbal transfiguration." Earning a groan from Sirius, who looked like he was half asleep.

"Something wrong, Mr. Black?" McGonagall said as she looked at him questioningly.

"Nope, nothing professor," Sirius replied with a forced smile. _Man, he really knows how to turn on the charm_ thought Tonks. Although it was unusual for Sirius to be this polite to a teacher, McGonagall was not one to be reckoned with.

"Okay then, let's get started. The key to performing a non-verbal transfiguration spell is _concentration_…"

As McGonagall continued on with her lecture, Sirius looked down and whispered _"Oh God, I'm going to die right here. Right now."_ Making Tonks emit a quiet snort as she attempted to focus on her notes and making Remus shake his head, but smile softly.

After an hour of lecture on non-verbal transfiguration and a half hour actually attempting them, the bell rang and class was over.

"For homework please write eight inches of parchment explaining the importance and difficulty of non-verbal transfiguration spells to be collected next class," Professor McGonagall said over the noise of the students gathering their belongings.

Sirius, Remus and Tonks were about to leave the room when McGonagall said, "You three, I need to talk to you."

They looked at each other skeptically and McGonagall said, "Oh, it's nothing bad, no need to get all flustered." She then waited a moment for the room to clear out of the few remaining students before saying, "The headmaster would like to speak with you after dinner, say around eight?" The three nodded and turned to leave the room.

"He likes lemon sherbert!" McGonagall called to their retreating backs. Sirius stopped and turned around to look back at her with confusion written on his face. Tonks sighed and grabbed his arm, dragging him out of the room.

"What are we supposed to bring him lemon sherbert?" Sirius asked once they were clear of the room and they closed the door behind them.

"No smarty. It's the password to Dumbledore's office," Remus told him as they walked down the corridor. Tonks and Sirius were headed to the Great Hall were they had a free period along with James. Remus had N.E.W.T Arithmacy and Lily was tutoring a second year in Charms.

As the group approached Remus' classroom, they stopped and Remus said at a whisper, "It's probably about, you know, the Order."

"Ooh, right..." said Sirius casually, who had moments before been racking his brain to think of anything he might have done to earn him a visit with the headmaster.

"Come on, let's go Sirius," said Tonks before giving Remus a kiss and turning towards the Great Hall.

Sirius and Tonks sat down at the Gryffindor table next to James who had already arrived.

"Hey, did anyone tell you about-"James started.

"Yeah, McGonagall," cut in Tonks.

"Lily said Binns told her too, I just saw her," James said.

"Probably just Order stuff like Remus said," said Sirius

At eight o'clock Sirius, James, Lily, Remus and Tonks were standing in Professor Dumbledore's office. The last time they had been in here was at the end of their previous year, after the tragedy that occurred at the final Triwizard Tournament. Cedric Diggory was killed and Harry Potter crawled out to the maze clutching his body and claiming that Lord Voldemort returned, to the disbelief of the wizarding world. Since James was Harry's cousin Dumbledore knew that he and his friends would believe Harry's claim. The day before they were set to go back home, Dumbledore called all of them into his office and told them about the Order of the Phoenix. It was a secret organization that Dumbledore himself formed during the First War. Dumbledore, being the genius that he is, called together the old members of Order to reform it, for the return of Voldemort meant one thing; another war. He then knew that Harry and his friends, being as meddlesome as they are, were in great danger, even in a secure place like Hogwarts. He needed a few talented, of age witches and wizards that could keep an eye on Harry and protect him if needed while he was at Hogwarts. Dumbledore proposed that the five friends join the Order of the Phoenix. He warned them that it would be extremely dangerous and it would have a huge influence on their lives. All five joined without hesitation. Now Harry didn't know about this, Dumbledore knew that he wouldn't like his cousin and his friends looking out for him because of the danger it put them in. They hadn't had many missions, they went to a few meetings over the summer and met the rest of the Order, but other than that they hadn't done much for it, making them positive that this meeting with Dumbledore was regarding the Order.

"Well, I'm sure you all know why you are here," said Dumbledore calmly. "No Sirius, it is not because of the dungbomb you set off in the Divination wing," Dumbledore stated while peering at Sirius though his half-moon spectacles. Sirius breathed a sigh of relief as Dumbledore continued. "I believe the timing is right for your first official Order of the Phoenix task." All five had mixed expressions of shock, excitement and nervousness on their faces. Dumbledore chuckled before continuing, "Don't worry, I know that you are capable of doing this and I have full confidence in each and every one of you." Dumbledore sat down at his large desk and clasped his long bony fingers and then spoke again. "I have had recent news from a source that Voldemort's Death Eaters are after something that could be a great gain to them, and a great danger to us. I wish for you to retrieve it, before they do and return it safely to headquarters this Friday night after classes and dinner."

He looked at the students to see if anyone was going to say anything. When no one spoke, he continued again.

"The object we are looking to retrieve is a simple ring that was buried with its owner in a small town outside of Burlington. Now alone the ring is not much of anything. But it's what Voldemort can turn it into that we are worried about." James opened his mouth as if about to say something, but Dumbledore held up a hand and closed his eyes. "No, no, no need to know what that could be just yet," he said gently as he opened his eyes. "We just need to get it before the Death Eaters do. My source informed me that the Death Eaters plan on retrieving the ring sometime next week. They are still making preparations for its final purpose which is why they have to wait until next week. We are waiting until Friday because we need to make plans, but more importantly, I wish to wait a few days as to not endanger my source of information. If we take the ring so soon after my source hearing about it then they will suspect someone has leaked information." Dumbledore paused before looking at every one of them and smiled with a twinkle in his eyes saying, "Are you ready for your first official task as members of the Order of the Phoenix?"

The tiny graveyard outside of Burlington was dead quiet. A quarter moon shone down, illuminating the names on the gravestones. There was the sound of flapping wings as an owl softly landed on a headstone. There was a rustling somewhere in the woods to the owls right and it flew off, startled. Suddenly five figures appeared out of nowhere with a faint whoosh of a white substance that was not quite smoke, but not quite water.

"Ouch! I landed on a rock! I'm never apparating in the dark again," said a female voice.

"Tonks, shhh! Who knows who could be here this late," said another female voice, this one quieter.

"Vampires, Inferi, Death Eaters, You-Know-Who hims-"

"Guys! Focus! Dumbledore said it was in a building with the name Gaunt on it," cut in a male voice.

"Leave it to Remus to get straight to business. Tonks, you're a lucky girl," said another male voice. Tonks shot James a glare before Remus said as if not hearing anything, "We should split up, cover ground quicker. James, Sirius and Lily you guys can go that way and Dora and I'll go this way."

"Okay, green sparks if you find it, red if you're in trouble," said Tonks as she lit her wand and the others did the same.

Tonks was deep in thought as she walked beside Remus, the light from their wands softly illuminating their faces as they peered into the darkness to the names on the crumbling stones. After a few moments of silence Remus glanced at Tonks from under his fringe, trying to read what she was thinking.

"You okay?" he asked her quietly.

She looked up, startled, "What? Oh, yeah. Just thinking, that's all," she said as she looked back into the darkness. Remus sighed and didn't say anything else, but kept looking at her face bathed in the light from her wand. She looked remarkably like Sirius and people often thought they were siblings instead of cousins. They both resembled the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black family tree so closely that any witch or wizard who hasn't been living in a cave for the past decade or two can instantly tell to what family they belong. Remus knew that this bothered Dora, and he never dared to talk about her mother's family.

"I was almost in Slytherin you know," she said so softly that Remus had to strain to hear it. He didn't say anything, just let her continue. "Yeah. As soon as McGonagall put the Sorting Hat on me it went on about how I was 'another Black' and how great I could be in Slytherin, and all that crap." She paused for a moment and let out a small laugh, looking somewhere in the distance. "It made me so mad. I said I was different. I wasn't like them." She lowered her voice and looked down. "Well, at least it listened." She said and looked back up at Remus. She gave a small smile before saying, "Sorry. Completely random. See what happens when you leave me alone with my thoughts…" she jokingly chastised him.

Remus opened his mouth, about to say something when he spotted green sparks fly up into the sky beyond where he and Dora were standing. She followed his eyes to where the sparks were and then looked back at him.

"Come on, let's go," Remus said as he grabbed her hand and lead her to the others.

Sirius, Lily and James were standing in front of the largest, oldest, most overgrown mausoleum in the cemetery. The word "Gaunt" was carved into the stone over the wooden doorway.

"Well. This is it," said James as he pointed his wand at the door and said _"Bombarda!"_

The door came crashing down, leaving a small cloud of dust in its wake. Sirius stepped in first and the rest followed.

Inside, three stone tombs stood next to each other. Together they levitated the lids off the first two, and made their way over to the last tomb to levitate its lid off. Once they removed it, they peered into the coffin and shone the light from their wands onto the dusty skeleton.

"Ugh. Someone needs some moisturizer," Tonks said with a disgusted look on her face.

Something glinted on the ring finger of the skeletons right hand. The ring.

"Come on, grab it so we can get out of here," James said as he glanced outside to where a light snow had started to fall. Sirius' fingers were inches away from taking the ring when a deep male voice came from the entrance of the mausoleum.

"Not so fast." They all turned their heads to see a large figure in the doorway, his face hidden in the shadows. He stepped forward into their wandlight and cold steel eyes glared at them from under a mane of silver hair.

Lucius Malfoy slid his own wand out from under his cloak and pointed it at them. A second face peered from around his broad shoulders at them and let out a cackle when she saw who she was looking at.

"Well, well! A little family reunion!" Tonks and Sirius stared into a face that had once been very beautiful, but had deteriorated as the darkness consumed her.

Bellatrix Lestrange stepped out from behind Lucius as he said calmly, "Just step away from the tomb, and then we can both go about our own ways and nobody gets hurt."

"Sorry Uncle. Can't do that," Sirius said with a smirk as he stepped forward and drew his wand. The others followed him and drew their own wands.

"Now, now. You wouldn't want to harm your own family? Your own pure blood?" Lucius replied.

_"Stupefy!"_ Tonks aimed her curse at her aunt and uncle with deadly accuracy, but Lucius was quicker. He cast a shield charm to block the curse, protecting his sister-in-law and himself.

"Ooh widdle Nymphadora not quick enough?" Bellatrix said in a baby voice before she cackled again at her niece. Tonks cut off her laugh with another curse, which was once again rebounded by Lucius' shield charm, but she continued her bombardment, forcing them out of the mausoleum entrance and into the graveyard. The light snow had turned into a much heavier snow and was accumulating on the ground making visibility poor. Once they were out in the open, six more masked Death Eaters surrounded them, as Lily quickly conjured her doe patronus and sent it off with a message to the Order members that they needed reinforcements. One of the Death Eaters tried firing a curse at Lily while she was sending off the doe but James jumped in blocking it and allowing her to get the message off safely. Sirius, James, Remus, Tonks and Lily quickly realized they were outnumbered eight to five as the Death Eaters closed in on them.

"You see what happens when you refuse to listen! You cannot win this!" screamed Lucius. Just then all hell broke loose. Curses were flying everywhere, hitting the gravestones with sickening crunches. Tonks ducked as one of Bellatrix's curses just missed her and brushed the top of her head. She ran behind a large headstone and ducked behind it to catch her breath.

"Come out, come out widdle Nymphadora, Auntie wants to play!" said Bellatrix over the noise of curses. Tonks crouched down and ran a hand through her hair and said to herself in a low whisper, "come on get up, get up…" Tonks swiftly stood up and took a dueling stance, squaring off with her Aunt.

"Ooo! So that's how you want to play!" said Bellatrix in delight as she took her own dueling stance and began the duel by shooting a curse at Tonks who deflected it, and returned her own curse. They slowly made their way back to where the others were fighting all while desperately praying for the other to slip up, but neither would give in. Tonks stole a quick glance at Remus to make sure he was okay and watched as he stupefied a Death Eater.

Suddenly there were three flashes of bright light-smoke as Moody, Kingsley, and Arthur Weasley arrived as the reinforcements. Catching them off guard, the three Order members stupefied two more Death Eaters and joined the fray. Remus and James were both dueling a large Death Eater when another one shot a curse right at Remus, but James saw it and grabbed Remus and forcing him on the ground and out of the way of the curse. The large Death Eater they were dueling didn't see them ducking and looked around in confusion as to where they went. From their low vantage point on the ground, Remus shouted _"Stupefy!"_ at him and he fell down into the snow with a thud.

Bellatrix and Tonks were still dueling when suddenly Bellatrix laughed in delight and looked over towards the mausoleum where Lucius was entering and heading towards the tomb with the ring in it. Tonks followed Bellatrix's eyes to where Lucius was.

"Shit!" she yelled as she took off towards the mausoleum and turned her back on Bellatrix.

Remus looked up from where he was on the ground with James as he heard his girlfriend scream, and saw that Bellatrix was pointing her wand directly at Tonks' back. As if in slow motion, Remus saw Bellatrix yell _"Pseudo Mortem!" _and watched in terror as a large, purple streak of light emerged from the tip of Bellatrix's wand and hit Tonks squarely between the shoulder blades. Tonks stopped suddenly and gasped as she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and then fall to the ground and lay in the snow, unmoving.

"No," Remus said quietly, and then more loudly, "No!"

Bellatrix laughed loudly to herself and thrust up her arms in triumph as she dissaparated in a whirl of thick black smoke. Lucius came out from the entrance of the mausoleum holding something that glinted in his hand. He held it up to show the others and with a smile on his face dissaparated along with the other remaining Death Eaters.

Remus was crying out "No, no, no, no…" over and over as he struggled with James to let him go.

"Remus, come on man…" James tried to placate him, but Remus broke free and ran over to where Tonks lay. He slid down on his knees in the snow next to her and laid her head on his lap.

"No, Dora come on. Wake up Dora! We have to go, you have to wake up!" he cried. "Oh God, please no." He ran his shaking hand through her long, soft, dark hair, begging her to wake up. Her chest lay unmoving and her skin was getting colder by the second.

Lily stood by Sirius with her hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking from holding back sobs and eyes glistening. Sirius stood with his arms at his side, mouth slightly open staring at Remus and Tonks in disbelief. James kneeled on the ground where Remus left him and watched the scene unfolding before him. Moody, Kingsley, and Arthur stood at a distance. Kingsley muttered something to the other adults about contacting Dumbledore and then conjured his lynx patronus and sent it off with the message for the headmaster.

The snow continued to quietly fall as a silent blanket around the group as they watched in sorrow as a Remus desperately begged his love to come back.

There was a flash of white smoke as someone silently apparated to the graveyard. Dumbledore scanned the scene before going over to Moody, Kingsley, and Arthur and quietly conversing with them. The others watched in silence as the headmaster made his way over to where Remus sat with Tonks in his arms, his head buried in her neck.

Dumbledore kneeled in the snow beside the two. "Remus," Dumbledore said as softly as the snow falling around them, "Remus, I need to see her." Remus ignored Dumbledore's voice and didn't even seem to notice anyone else had arrived.

"Remus, look at me," Dumbledore continued. "Look at me," he said with more force. Remus slowly looked up at the headmaster with confusion in his amber eyes. He didn't understand why they were trying to take him away from her. Didn't they understand that this was his last moment with her? That he would never gaze into her green eyes again, or brush his lips over her warm soft ones and run his hands through her silky hair? He would never again hear her laugh that made his heart skip a beat. Didn't they understand that the girl he loved more than life itself was dead?

"Remus, I can help her," Dumbledore said almost too quietly to hear. _How could he help?_ Remus thought. _She's gone._ He didn't know what willed him to do it, but Remus gently laid Dora's head back on the snowy ground and with one last look at her, slowly backed away but remained kneeling on the ground.

The rest of the group watched Remus kneeling with his head lowered and the snow collecting on his sandy brown hair and the shoulders of his coat. Dumbledore rubbed his hands together for warmth and then held them a few inches above Tonks' body. He then closed his eyes and began murmuring in a deep voice a strange language that almost sounded like a tragic song. Dumbledore's voice started out soft, but gradually got more forceful and quicker as time went on and a soft golden glow was emitted from his hands and they started to shake. The glow became stronger and stronger until it exploded with light and forced its way into Tonks' body. Her chest rose up again as she took a deep gasping breath and her eyes snapped open.

Tonks breathed heavily and looked around confused, but still lay on the ground. Dumbledore backed away from her and stood up, striding over to where the adults stood. Remus started at Dora in shock for a moment and then crawled over to where she was and embraced her while sobbing into her hair. Tonks just lay there, still breathing heavily looking very confused. Remus pulled back and took her face in his hands and gazed into her eyes while Dora looked at him. After a moment she began to tremble and sobs racked her body and she leaned into Remus' chest as they cried together.

An hour or so later Remus and Tonks sat side by side in Dumbledore's office. Tonks had changed into warm, dry clothes and was staring into space. She looked very tired and small. Dumbledore sat in his desk and looked at the couple through his half-moon spectacles for a moment before speaking.

"Nymphadora since you were on an official Order of the Phoenix mission tonight we cannot tell your parents or anyone else what happened to you in the graveyard. Do you understand?"

Remus looked over at her, with sadness in his eyes. Tonks continued to stare into space. When Tonks didn't show any small sign of objection to Dumbledore using her first name, Remus knew that something was definitely wrong with her. Tonks lowered her eyes to her hands in her lap and gave a small nod. Dumbledore took a deep breath and began speaking again to Tonks.

"When I arrived to the graveyard tonight and spoke with Alastor, Kingsley, and Arthur and heard exactly what happened I was able to make a conclusion about what curse was used on you. I knew that it was not the killing curse from their descriptions," Tonks still stared into her lap so Dumbledore continued. "Bellatrix used the Pseudo Mortem, or 'false death', curse on you." Tonks looked up at him for the first time, and then looked back into her lap, aware that Remus was looking at her intently the entire time.

"Pseudo Mortem was thought to only be a legend until now, and is very advanced dark magic. What the spell does is it puts the victim into what the name literally says, a 'false death'. It transports the soul of the victim to another plane of existence, and not a pleasant one. What this does is leaves the body on this plane of existence and makes it seem that the person has deceased. That is why this spell can be so deadly. The person appears to have died, but their soul is simply just separated from the body. The person is mistaken for dead and treated as such, while their soul and consciousness is just lost in a hell dimension." Dumbledore sighed before saying, "Nymphadora I regret that I have to do this so soon, but it is necessary. I need you to tell me what happened to you after Bellatrix cast the curse on you."

Remus tore his eyes away from Dora and looked at the headmaster and started to say, "Professor is this really neces-" but Dumbledore calmly held up a hand and continued to look at Tonks. She opened her mouth, took a breath and paused before saying, "It was..." She then closed her eyes and sighed, shook her head and ran a hand slowly through her hair.

"It was…" she continued again, but stopped and pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. "I can't remember," she said in a small voice after a moment.

Dumbledore smiled sadly at her and she took down her hands from her eyes but kept them closed.

"But I remember…a feeling," said Tonks. Dumbledore nodded at her, asking her to continue. "It was like…like I'd never be happy again. There was no joy. Only…dark. It was so dark. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see anything… I didn't know where I was. But I couldn't move and I knew I'd be stuck there forever," she finished in a tiny voice.

Tonks suddenly felt very tired all of a sudden, like she could sleep for a week. At that moment there was a small knock on the door and it opened to reveal Madam Pomfrey.

"Ahh, Poppy, come in, we were just finishing," said Dumbledore with a smile on his face.

Remus turned around to look at the school nurse and noticed that Tonks didn't even acknowledge her arrival.

"Miss Tonks? Dear if you could come with me, you need some rest," Madam Pomfrey said kindly to Tonks.

Tonks nodded and got up and made her way to the door of the office. Remus got up to follow her but Dumbledore motioned for him to sit back down. Remus slowly sat down all while watching his girlfriend leave the office with Madam Pomfrey guiding her.

"She's never going to be the same, is she?" said Remus staring at the closed door.

"She will carry this with her for the rest of her life and it will take some time, but I do believe that we will have our Tonks back with us," Dumbledore answered him and continued, "Remus I asked you to stay because I wish to speak to you alone and explain my actions tonight."

Remus looked back at the headmaster and Dumbledore said, "I know that it was hard for you to watch her have to recall what happened in the graveyard, but I'm afraid it was necessary for this to happen so soon after the event. You see the longer the amount of time that elapses after the spell has occurred and she has been brought back, the less she will remember. That's why she couldn't recall exactly what happened. The memories were already starting to fade."

Remus looked up hopefully and said, "So will she just forget the whole thing after a while?"

"I wish it was that simple. Chances are that Nymphadora experienced nothing less than hell this evening and that isn't something that is quickly forgotten. She will not recall the detailed memories of where she was, but she will always know of the terrors she experienced. That feeling of utter and complete fear she will never forget." Remus looked down at his hands, disappointed.

"But, all is not lost! She has something that can bring her out of this Remus! Something that can bring Tonks back," Dumbledore said in response to his reaction. Remus looked up. "She has you. And she has her friends, and she is loved. And something as simple as love can repair even the deepest of wounds."

Three weeks later Remus and Tonks were lying on Remus' bed in his dorm during a rare but welcome moment of peace and quiet. Tonks was pressed up against his side, tracing patterns with her finger onto his shirt while Remus was playing with the ends of her long, silky, dark brown hair. Tonks was almost back to her old self, but the memories of that night still crept up on her in her dreams sometimes.

"We have to go to dinner soon," Remus whispered into her hair.

"Mmm..but I'm so comfy here," Dora said lazily while she closed her eyes. Remus chuckled and she opened her eyes and looked up at him.

"What's so funny, mister?"

Remus smirked before saying, "You. You're so cute."

Dora smiled and leaned in to kiss him fully on the lips. She rolled on top of him so that his arms were around her waist now, and she ran her fingers through his hair, messing it up.

"Oh, COME ON MOONY!" came a voice from the doorway.

Tonks gave a small shriek and jumped off Remus like she had been electrocuted. She then saw the owner of the voice and sighed, rolled her eyes and then closed them and ran a hand through her hair, a red streak in it flashing for a moment.

"Jesus Padfoot! Don't you knock?!" said an irritated Remus.

"KNOCK?!? IT'S MY DORM TOO! And I come in here, looking for some peace and quiet and here you are hooking up with my baby cousin!!" yelled back Sirius.

"Hey! I am NOT your _baby_ cousin!" Tonks said as she narrowed her green eyes.

"Yes you are!" insisted Sirius.

"I'm only like…seven months younger than you!" she shot back.

"Yeah, well…still. You're my cousin. And he's my best friend. I'm still a little weirded out by it," Sirius said.

"STILL!?! We've been dating for like, over a year!"

Sirius flashed his pearly whites and said, "Yeah, I know. I just like gettin' ya worked up cuz."

"Ugh, get out!" she said as she threw a pillow at him, hitting him squarely in the face.

"Okay, okay, jeeze woman, I'm gone, I'm gone!" he said as he backed out the door. "See you two at dinner," he added with a wink and a smile before closing the door.

Dora flopped her head back on the pillow and covered her eyes with her hand. "You have no idea what it's like being related to him."

"Try living with him," Remus said. Dora looked at him and burst into laughter that filled Remus' ears and heart.

**Disclaimer**

Anything that is recognizable from any of the _Harry Potter _books is property of J.K. Rowling and I make no profit from it.


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